We Are Borg?
Written: Nov 18 '03 (Updated Mar 26 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very pretty piece of junk.
Cons: Switch is tiny surface-mount switch, not designed for the stress it has to take.
The Bottom Line: It's crap. Avoid it.
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| caradoc's Full Review: Jabra Freespeak For Bluetooth Phns |
"You've been assimilated!"
That's one of the first comments I got while wearing the Jabra Freespeak BT200. But it's a *cool* piece of gadgetry that does most of what you'd need in a headset.
Since I drive a Forester with a manual transmission, I got really tired of the headset wires and the charger wires getting tangled up with either the gearshift or the turn signal controls, depending on where I tried moving the phone's holder.
The Jabra Freespeak eliminates the need to move the phone around, so I just leave it in the dashboard tray, where I can leave the charger connected if I need to without having to worry about it tangling around the gearshift or anything.
The headset consists of a silver plastic shell with somewhat softer gray "rubber" for the boom microphone and the part that goes in your ear. The earbud itself is made from what looks like a blue silicone or Kraton rubber-like substance, which is fairly soft.
There is a very bright blue LED slightly to the back of the "top" of the headset. It's so bright, in fact, that I would not recommend leaving the Freespeak on your ear while going to the movies - it'll probably distract the heck out of anyone sitting behind you, and is so bright that I can't leave the Freespeak on my dresser without plugging it in. It blinks, and keeps her awake. If it's plugged in, the LED goes solid blue, and just glows until charged then goes out again.
On the "back" of the headset are the connect/disconnect button and volume control. There is no mute button on the headset - which would have been nice, but isn't entirely necessary. All of the buttons are distinctively marked not for the eye, but for the finger. It's easy to tell the connect/disconnect button from the volume controls while groping at the headset and heading down the freeway at 65MPH.
The "belt holster" isn't worth clipping to your belt. It's much easier to carry the headset in your shirt pocket or just leave it on your ear (It's so lightweight and comfortable that I've actually forgotten that I'm still wearing it on occasion.) Also, while carrying it in a shirt pocket or on your ear, you're far less likely to lose the earbud...
The blue rubber-like earbud reverses for left or right wearing. It also pops off very easily, especially when pivoted into the position that lets you put the Freespeak into the "belt holster." Since the "belt holster" is also the charging station for the headset, I leave it at home on my dresser, and just plug the headset in every other night to keep it charged.
Setting up the Freespeak is easy with any Bluetooth-enabled phone. Just press and hold the "connect/disconnect" button while the headset is "off," and wait for it to flash its little blue LED rapidly. Then tell your phone to "discover" the headset, punch in the factory-set "security" code, and pair the headset to the phone. Easy.
I've used the headset as much as 45 minutes a day without losing a call on it, but my needs are to have access to the phone within about 90 seconds of my pager going off. The length of my calls isn't as important as the ability to call back FAST.
Using the Freespeak to place a call with an Ericsson T68i is as easy as pressing the connect/disconnect button, waiting about two seconds for the headset to bring up the phone's connection, saying the name of the person I want to call, and then defining whether that's going to be their home, mobile, or work number. So, "button, beep, name, place," and the call is established. This is good, because I spend about two hours every day on my commute, and that seems to be when I usually get paged.
Voice quality through the headset is at least as good as the last wired headset I was using. I've heard complaints from some other users that the Freespeak is a little too bass-heavy, but I haven't had that problem myself.
The only time I've had trouble was when I'd left my cell phone on my desk when I went over to a neighboring cubicle to get some paperwork. The range for the headset-to-phone connection seems to drop off sharply at distances greater than ten feet, especially in a "radio-noisy" environment like a server room or data center.
I like the Freespeak. It has almost all the features I need in a headset - the one missing is the ability to "mute" the call from the headset. Ah, well, maybe in the next revision.
I do wish, however, that Jabra would take more care with their manufacturing. The "silver" plastic shell on the earpiece has rubbed off quite a bit of metallic gray onto the skin behind my ear, and the "eargel" pops off of the headset far too easily. They put three of the eargels into the box with the Freespeak, and I'm on #2 now after about three months of use.
Now that the price on the headset has come down to under $70 at places like Fry's Electronics, I think I'll be seeing more of these on my co-workers' heads.
Updated March 3rd, 2004
Well, I was wrong. The Jabra BT200 is a piece of junk. Today, the on/off button quit working, and the recommendations from the Jabra "tech support" personnel didn't work either.
So, I opened the BT200 up to see why it wasn't working. The switch that controls the on/off functions is the single tiniest surface-mount switch I've ever seen in my life, and it's mounted at a right-angle to the direction that it functions. You'd think that the primary button for a device like this would be a more robust design.
It popped off of the solder joints under normal use, and cannot be repaired.
Therefore, I cannot recommend the BT200 to anyone. It may be pretty on the outside, but on the inside it's one of the worst pieces of engineering I've seen in a long time.
Updated March 26th, 2004
I've replaced the BT200 with a Plantronics M3000. After looking at its insides, I've come to the conclusion that Jabra must have hired thumb-fingered monkeys to design the BT200 internals. The Plantronics headset is a lot more robust, and blows the Jabra out of the water when it comes to talk time and standby time.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
caradoc
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: John Groseclose
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Reviews written: 182
Trusted by: 133 members
About Me:
System admin, technology addict, knife thrower, and dog "caregiver."
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